Let’s define the difference between a burden we carry and a cross we bear. Christians have but one CROSS—that of self-denial. See Matthew 16:24. Jesus exemplified and taught that truth. His Cross meant death to him; our Cross means death to our SELF-WILL. Paul personally declared his celebration of that truth in Galatians 2:20 and urged it on Christians in Colossians 3:3-4.
Self-will exists in what each person holds so precious he surrenders it last of all in a passion to retain it. And, yes, Jesus had such a relationship: his eternal fellowship with God, as God. Knowing he lost that on the Cross brought him to his knees, and perhaps to his face, in Gethsemane, struggling so fiercely that it broke blood vessels in his head and dropped bloody sweat on the ground Luke 22:40-44. Struggling so fiercely with God the Father’s will that God sent an angel to God the Son, strengthening his decision to suffer that loss. But let us not linger there, in that holy ground, where the Savior endured suffering we cannot calculate. It’s too HOLY a place for even saved mortals to intrude. Think instead of how mortals faced their personal Gethsemane when confronted by Christ and found the pleasure of knowing him worth the cost:
And some found that pleasure too high a cost:
What of us? What do we hold so precious that we desperately secrete it where it can’t be found, only to discover the Holy Spirit sees and demands we SURRENDER even IT to be Christ’s follower? End Part III
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